Jailed: Teacher Jeremy Forrest was attacked in prison because he was accused of having sex with an underage girl, it has been claimed

Convicted paedophile Jeremy Forrest was attacked by a fellow inmate while standing trial for abducting a schoolgirl, it has been claimed.

The married teacher, who was jailed for five and a half years last week, appeared in the dock at one point with a black eye.

His legal team denied he had been assaulted at the time, but today a police source told the Daily Mirror he was attacked during his time on remand at Lewes Prison in East Sussex by a prisoner who was angry at the nature of his predatory crime.

'Another prisoner took a pop at him because he was accused of having sex with an underage girl,' the source said.

Forrest, 30, is currently being kept in the 'vulnerable prisoner' wing amid fears he may harm himself.

'I am told he as been put in isolation for his own protection before he is moved to a Category C jail - he is going to be a marked man now,' the Mirror's source added.

Forrest was convicted of abducting a schoolgirl, 15, and fleeing with her to France, and admitted five child sex charges.

Yesterday it emerged he plans to marry his victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, when he is released.

Forrest’s
sister Carrie Hanspaul, 33, says the maths tutor told his parents during
a prison visit: ‘ I love her and we want to get married.’

On the run: Forrest pictured with the schoolgirl he abducted after they fled to France

The
dramatic twist in the nine-month long saga comes as The Mail on Sunday
revealed for the first time the contents of an emotional letter the pupil
wrote to Forrest’s parents, in which she declares her undying love for
him.

Support: Forrest's sister Carrie Hanspaul says his family his behind him and is concentrating on his welfare while in jail

In the five-page note on lilac Laura Ashley notepaper, signed with two kisses, she describes Forrest as ‘wonderful’.

The girl, who recently turned 16, sent it as her former teacher at Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne awaited trial.

The girl apologised ‘for any upset I have caused’ and said she felt safer while on the run in France with Forrest last September than at home or school.

Mrs Hanspaul said: ‘If they’re going to carry on and be in a relationship, we would welcome her into our family and offer any support she was to ask for. We are concentrating on getting him through this.'

She also added that the victim has been given permission to visit Forrest in jail.

'The girl’s planning on doing that as soon as she can,' said Mrs Hanspaul. 'Jeremy told me that he’d been told that she wanted to visit.

‘In court on the day of his conviction, he said to me, ‘‘Tell her she’s allowed to visit,’’ and when I did she just smiled.’

The father of the schoolgirl victim has said that he approves of their plan to marry and that he would happily walk his 16-year-old down the aisle.

As the teenager publicly declared her love for her jailed former teacher, her biological father said he supports their relationship and even wants to thank Forrest for what he did.

Despite his confession of having under-age sex with his daughter – and running away with her to France when she was 15 years old - the victim’s father said he wants to shake Forrest’s hand.

‘I’d like to visit him in prison and, shake his hand, and say, “Thanks for looking after my daughter”,’ he told The Sun.